A group of friends tries to piece itself back together after losing its glue.
*****
It's a quiet October morning in Palo Alto, California, when the news break out--June Beaumont was...
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FELIX
My parents were less than thrilled to see me pack my bags.
While most people were headed off to the beach to celebrate Spring Break and others opened their college acceptance letters, a hurricane had come and gone through my room as I tried to ensure I wouldn't forget anything. Of course I had a list of stuff I needed to take, but I was scared I'd forgotten to write something down.
My own college letter was sitting on my desk, still unopened. My dad had left it there and I forbade him from making any comments regarding the weight of the envelope, as I didn't want a potential refusal to ruin the entire week for me.
In the back of my mind, I believed it wasn't a refusal. I knew how hard I had worked during the past four years, and I knew how much time and effort I had dedicated into building the perfect application. I knew I was good.
It was just a matter of wondering if I was good enough, which made things so much harder, didn't it?
"Felix," my father called, standing right outside of my bedroom. I immediately straightened, as though I was staring right back at a drill sergeant. "I know you've already made up your mind, but your mother and I still don't think this is a good idea. You have other things to worry about besides a teenage tragedy."
I knitted my brows together. "You're talking about my friend, Dad."
He sighed, a gesture coated in condescendence. "Yeah, but you know what people have been saying. Things might not have been exactly how they seemed. Not everything was as perfect as we all thought it was."
"Well, that's the goddamn problem, isn't it? If everything was perfect, we wouldn't bother looking into it."
"It's not your place to look into it. Leave it to the police—"
"Because the police just love to help me, don't they?" His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, as that wasn't something we liked to talk about in this house. We all knew how dangerous it was. "They didn't know June—we did. She wanted us to go to San Francisco."
"And then what, Felix? You're going to San Francisco, and then what? What exactly are you expecting to find there? A miracle?"
"I want to figure out what happened to June." I closed my final suitcase. "I don't want to waste this opportunity and I won't know what it holds unless I go for it. I thought you and Mom hadn't raised me to be a quitter."
